WHAT IS IT? - This is a scanning electron micrograph of the interior of a cabbage butterfly's proboscis, a long, flexible feeding tube. CNS Photo.

ELECTRON INK - You can find out the names of hundreds of geological features and where they're found in the solar system at http://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov. CNS Photo.

ANECDOTAL EVIDENCE - In 1931, the famously portly Winston Churchill was hit by a taxi on Fifth Avenue in New York and taken to a hospital. Churchill wasn't seriously hurt, but he wondered about the collision and asked friend Frederick Lindemann, a physicist, to study it. CNS Photo.

TRUE FACTS - Most amphibians lose moisture through their thin skins and so prefer to remain wet. CNS Photo.

A DAM SITE BETTER OFF - Canadian researchers surveying the abundance and diversity of amphibians in the boreal forests of Canada have discovered that frogs and toads seem to fare best in places also occupied by beavers. CNS Photo.

Can you translate the following saying? "That prudent avis that matutinally deserts the coziness of its abode will ensnare a vermiculate creature."

'TRUE FACTS'

Most amphibians lose moisture through their thin skins and so prefer to remain wet. The South American monkey frog is different. From specialized glands, it secretes a waxy substance that it smears over its body with its legs. The frog can then sit motionless surrounded by dry air for hours, waiting for an unwary insect to pass by.

VERBATIM

"Listen. There's a hell of a good universe next door. Let's go."

- E.E. Cummings, American poet (1894-1962)

ANTHROPOLOGY 101

Among ancient Persians, butting the ends of eggs together was a popular pastime, the first egg to break being the loser. Competition could be fierce, and a particularly strong egg was considered a valuable asset.

In 1931, the famously portly Winston Churchill was hit by a taxi on Fifth Avenue in New York and taken to a hospital. Churchill wasn't seriously hurt, but he wondered about the collision and sent a telegram to his friend Frederick Lindemann, a physicist. Churchill asked Lindemann to calculate the impact of a car weighing 2,400 pounds and traveling 30 to 35 miles per hour on a stationary body weighing 200 pounds. Churchill noted that the car's brakes had not been applied, that he had been carried a distance, and that the physics would presumably be "impressive."

Canadian researchers surveying the abundance and diversity of amphibians in the boreal forests of Canada have discovered that frogs and toads seem to fare best - if they fare well at all - in places also occupied by beavers.

That's because the dam-building beavers create ponds and wetlands crucial to the amphibians, whose overall populations are declining due, in part, to disappearing habitat.

Researchers at the University of Alberta captured (temporarily) 5.7 times more wood frogs, 29 times more western toads and 24 times more boreal chorus frogs at 54 targeted beaver ponds than they did at nearby free-flowing streams.

Beaver ponds are particularly well-suited to amphibians. They create pools of warm, well-oxygenated water, which enhance the reproductive rates of amphibians, and they are less hospitable to predatory fish because they tend to be on small streams where winterkill conditions are common.

WHAT IS IT? ANSWER

A scanning electron micrograph of the interior of a cabbage butterfly's proboscis - a long, flexible feeding tube.